NXN Glossary and Viewing Guide

The field is set. The teams are prepping. The only real thing left to do is race. That, and read through our glossary and viewing guide.

Read up. Here’s everything you need to know (and more!) before NXN:

Undefeated (See also: Sarah Baxter): Sarah Baxter of Simi Valley (Calif.) has yet to lose a high school cross country race. Zero losses. Zip. Zilch. Nada. She even beat Mary Cain last year. (Yeah, that Mary Cain.) She’s the prohibitive favorite on Saturday, and is being joined by her Simi Valley teammates.

Streaking: No, not running around while scantily clad. We’re talking about the Fayetteville-Manlius (N.Y.) girls, who have won seven straight NXN titles. After two early-season losses to Unionville (Pa.), they’ve gotten better and better as the season wears on. Their 32 points at NXN New York was mighty impressive, not to mention the lowest point total of any regional winner. Don’t sleep on the other girls’ teams. In addition to Unionville, the Davis (Utah) girls were powerful all season, same goes for Carmel (Ind.). Great Oak was firing on all cylinders at the California state meet. Could someone end the streak?

Battle for Supremacy: The CBA (N.J.) boys won in 2011. The Arcadia (Calif.) boys won in 2012. Both could win this year. Or will it be a surprise winner like last year’s second-place team American Fork? Could the Fayetteville-Manlius boys join the girls as the top team on the podium? Don’t forget Gig Harbor of Washington. This should be a fantastic boys’ race.

Webcast: You can watch the race on Facebook. Click this link, and you’ll be able to watch all the action live.

Hash Tags: This one is for the parents. Here’s what you need to know about #hashtags: They help you sift through information on Twitter. If you click on #NXN or #werunxc, you’ll be able to keep up with all the happenings this weekend. We here at Running Times will be tweeting from our high school account: @RunningTimesHS.

Swooshes: They will be EVERYWHERE. But that’s just fine, because Nike knows how to put on a cross country race. NXN is one of the greatest high school sports spectacles of the year.

Striped Shirts: The Gig Harbor boys are coached by 1:45.4 800m specialist Mark Wieczorek. At the 2012 Olympic trials, Wieczorek became a fan favorite with his striped T-shirt. Like coach, like athlete: the Gig Harbor boys were stylish when they qualified for NXN at the Northwest regional race. They won’t be in T-shirts for NXN, however. Nike provides the athletes with plenty of gear for race day.

Man-Made Obstacles: This is no rodeo, but hay bales are one of the added dimensions to the NXN course that make it a unique race. Don’t forget the set of rolling hills and puddles that were everywhere last year. (The NXN website says it doesn’t want as many puddles as last year, and hopes it doesn’t rain as much: “Adjustments [were made] to the race course and man-made obstacles to avoid problem areas that were identified last year.”)

The “Training Log” Anti-Curse: Ever heard of the Sports Illustrated curse? If a team or sports star appears on the cover of the magazine, then they’re bound to start struggling. The opposite appears to be true of the Running Times Training Log, which we’re calling an anti-curse. We featured six boys teams. Four of those are on their way to NXN. (We did showcase Edina after they had already qualified.) Here they are:

**Note: we were 0-for-5 on girls teams who had Training Logs. We’re working on it.

Club or School: One of the few downfalls of NXN is the confusion of telling who is who. Not because the singlets look alike (have you seen how many different color-ways they come up with?), but because each school has to go by a city or club name, because of weird high school rules that prohibit some schools from post season competition. But have no fear! We matched up the club name with the high school so you don’t have to. Most are easy to match, some are confusing. Just study up so you can remember as the race is going on.

A Part of Hearst Digital Media
Runner's World participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites.